Today's News

Mark Costello has been elected to replace Joni Ernst in the Iowa State Senate.

Costello, 53, will be the next senator from District 12 after a special election Tuesday in southwest Iowa. Costello, an Imogene Republican, defeated Steve Adams, a Democrat, and Don Brantz, a Libertarian, while receiving 3,068 votes or 74 percent of the votes cast at the polls Tuesday. Adams finished with 22 percent, while Brantz tallied three percent of the vote.

Libertarian Party District 12 state senate candidate Don Brantz of rural Glenwood denies he sexually assaulted a woman in Nebraska.

Brantz, 69, is scheduled to go to trial Jan. 14 in Sarpy County on a misdemeanor sexual assault charge stemming from an Oct. 10 incident at a private residence in Bellevue. Brantz was also charged with disturbing the peace and interfering with the Public Service Commission, misdemeanors as well.

Five Star Quality Care is closing two skilled nursing and rehabilitation facilities in Mills County – Glenwood-based Park Place and Pacific Place located east of Pacific Junction.

The Massachusetts-based owner and operator of the two facilities announced the closures last week. Combined, Park Place and Pacific Place treat nearly 100 adult residents with physical or intellectual disabilities and employ over 250 workers.

The city of Glenwood and Glenwood Community School District have come to terms on a long-range real estate lease and shared-use agreement for the Charles E. Lakin Aquatic Center proposed on property adjacent to Glenwood Community High School.

The school district will receive $1 a year from the city over a 99-year period, according to the agreement approved by the Glenwood City Council at its regular meeting Tuesday, Dec. 9.

Supplemental Amount (MSA) for dropout prevention in the amount of $390,948.

The funds, which are used for at-risk students and drop-out prevention programs, are approved Despite being 30 days behind schedule, construction of the Glenwood Community High School auxiliary gym is still projected to be completed in time for the start of the 2015-16 school year.

Shirley Lundgren has spent more than 30 years dealing in education finances, including the last eight in Glenwood, as a school board secretary.

During that time she attended hundreds of board meetings, jotting down notes and clarifying school financial protocols. But at last Monday’s Glenwood Community School District Board of Directors meeting, Lundgren did something she’s never done.

It took four ballots, but southwest Iowa Republicans finally came away with a candidate for the 12th District State Senate seat special election on Dec. 30.

State Rep. Mark Costello of Imogene emerged as the Republican nominee from a field of seven candidates during a special convention Thursday night in Clarinda. Costello received 58 percent of the vote in the fourth round of voting, easily outdistancing runner-up Seth Watkins of Clarinda (23 percent) and former Montgomery County Supervisor Margaret Stoldorf of Red Oak (19 percent).

Rural Glenwood resident Don Brantz, a political activist and former member of the Mills County Board of Supervisors, has announced his candidacy for the District 12 seat in the Iowa State Senate vacated last month by Republican Joni Ernst, who was elected to the U.S. Senate in the Nov. 4 general election.

Brantz was nominated to run for the state senate seat on Thursday by the Iowa Libertarian Party, according to a press release sent Monday.

A 42-year-old Malvern man was sentenced to serve 10 years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree theft Monday in Mills County District Court.

Mills County Attorney Tricia McSorley said Jeffery Dennis Anderson stole just under $75,000 in goods, services and money from his former employer, Agriland FS through what she described as a “farming scheme” and “trucking scheme.” The stolen cash was taken from a bank account.